A literature review establishes a working definition of recreational mathematics: a type of play which is enjoyable and requires mathematical thinking or skills to engage with. Typically, it is accessible to a wide range of people and can be effectively used to motivate engagement with and develop understanding of mathematical ideas or concepts.…

Ever had a roommate? Then you know that it can be difficult to share housekeeping duties. This article uses game theory to analyze situations in which there is a task to be done and two people who might do it. We then use our analysis to consider what game theory tells us about the gendered division of household labor.

The traveler's dilemma is a generalization of the prisoner's dilemma which shows clearly a paradox of game theory. In the traveler's dilemma, the strategy chosen by analysis and theory seems obviously wrong intuitively. Here we develop a measure of evolutionary stability and show that the evolutionarily stable equilibrium is in some sense not very…

This article points out that many students, even of college age, lack familiarity with and confidence about probability problems. Several examples are given, including a "fair game" situation which would probably cause many readers some initial concern. (LS)

The game of "Sprouts" is explained, then several theorems concerning the game are stated and proved. (DT)

"The Price is Right" ("TPIR") is a rich source of examples of applied probability, combinatorics, and game theory. While some of the games played on stage by individual contestants stress a knowledge of pricing, many are also heavily based on probability. "TPIR" stage games are a treasury of interesting modules that can be effective learning tools…

In 1945, Bronislaw Knaster proposed a procedure to divide any number of indivisible goods between a finite number of players requiring the players to place monetary values or bids on all of the goods. Often discussed in math for liberal arts courses that concentrate on contemporary applications of mathematics for non-major students, Knaster's…

Two units make up this material. They focus on applications of second-order difference equations to American politics. The goals of the first module include helping the user understand: 1) the difference between a theoretical construct and an observable; 2) the nature of choices which exist in modeling any particular empirical phenomenon; and 3)…

This document consists of two modules. The first studies a variety of multicandidate voting systems, including approval, Borda, and cumulative voting, using a model which takes account of a voter's intensity of preference for candidates. The voter's optimal strategy is investigated for each voting system using decision criteria under uncertainty…